#RealHappiness - Day 21 - Thinking Meditation

I wrapped up Week Three of the #MeditationChallenge with 30 minutes of "Thinking Meditation".  I started by settling in and feeling the ground beneath me, as Sharon suggests.  Knowing that I can count on that solidity.  I follow the breath, knowing that it comes and goes without effort.  No need to control it. 

Having reconnected with a Junior High School friend via a social media site right before my sit, I had that fresh on my mind.  It was thoughts of that friendship, the reconnection and the discovery that my best friend from Junior High is a Buddhist that ebbed and flowed for me during this sit.

The goal of this meditation practice is to note the thinking as it happens, and later, what kind of thinking it is.  I started with just the realization that these thoughts were arising.  This was harder than normal for me, as I kept latching on to the thoughts and following a story.  Then I would realize I was no longer watching a thought but creating a story that started with a thought, and I would bring it back to the breath.  This was the real purpose of course, so I guess I succeeded. ;-)

Sharon says "Our habitual tendency is to grab on to a thought and build an entire world around it, or push it away and struggle against it." and this is definitely what I was doing.  Fortunately, I was able to see that, and bring it back.  I was able to let it go, bring my attention back to the breath and continue.

So, with Week Three behind me, I'm looking ahead to Week Four where I'll be working on:

• LovingKindness - Cultivating Compassion and True Happiness.
• LovingKindness Meditation for Caregivers.
• LovingKindness Meditation on Seeing the Good.
• LovingKindness Meditation on Quieting the Inner Critic.
• LovingKindness While Walking.
• Circle of Loving Kindness Meditation.

I'll be out of town this weekend, so I'll save the Walking Meditation for then.  Hopefully, I'll be with my Sangha on Sunday and we can do the Circle Meditation.  Then, before you know it, this month long mediation challenge will be done, and hopefully you'll all have found benefit in the additional practice or established your own daily practice if you didn't already have one! 

_/\_